Why doomscrolling is bad for your brain: Stop swiping to take back control of your mental health

We all know that eating junk food will take a toll on our health. The same goes for ‘doomscrolling’, the habit of endlessly gorging on negative information.

Those who practice this behavior are having their brains rewired and it’s leading to ‘brain rot’, literally, explained best-selling author and neuroscientist TJ Power to Men’s Health. He provides hope though for those addicted to doomscrolling with tips to kick the habit so they can regain their mental health and happiness.

Why do we doomscroll?

In order to understand doomscrolling, Power says that we need to understand how dopamine works. This neurotransmitter is also called the ‘happy hormone’ or the ‘pleasure molecule’.

In the past, humans received very little dopamine in a given day, typically when they achieved some accomplishment or satisfied some basic need. However, instead of a few doses of dopamine each day, doomscrollers are getting hundreds, leading to addiction and a reduced range of what pleases them.

The effects of doomscrolling on the brain

This mindlessly scrolling through social media for two or more hours a day is leading to brain rot. Men’s Health referenced a post by Power in which he said the condition “isn’t just a meme. It’s real and it’s shrinking your brain,” along with a number of research studies to back up that statement.

How to identify ‘brain rot’

The three areas of the brain that are losing gray matter from doomscrolling are those “responsible for memory, emotional regulation, and decision making.” Common signs that you may be experiencing cognitive decline from brann rot include “being unable to sit without external stimulation, eat without watching something, or walk without headphones.”

How to stop doomscrolling

Power gives three steps that people can take to kick the doomscrolling habit for good. These involve not just pure willpower but also rewiring your brain as you would to break any other addiction.

First, you need to establish control over your phone, which you can start by resisting the urge to check your phone as the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning.

This will provide you with a sense of accomplishment, but you should seek others that will give you that dopamine that your body is craving. Power recommends getting outside more, taking up an activity that you love, or just doing chores around the house.

As a person who says that he himself suffered from social media addiction, Power now limits his usage to three 10 minute periods each day at specific set times, 10am, 3pm, and 8pm. He also told Men’s Health that he has an app called Roots, which forces him to make a concerted effort to get past the lock it places on social media apps.

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